Room Hopping
by Duelist925
Summary: After an...incident at her apartment, Judy finds herself living with her friend and partner, Nick. From there arises a series of events that tests their friendship in strange ways, while a mystery unfolds. JudyXNick
"Pangolin Arms, where all the naive country bumpkin charm comes to die." Nick said dryly as they came up to the shabby apartment complex. He'd walked her home after the Gazelle concert—nothing planned, they'd just gotten to talking as they left and he'd wound up tagging along even after they'd fallen into a comfortable silence.

Judy rolled her eyes and punched her partner's shoulder. "Quiet you. It's good enough for me, and lets me save up some cash." She paused in front of the door leading into the complex itself, smiling up at Nick. "Thanks for walking me. Noble fox." Her smile turned into a grin at the way his eyes rolled.

"Pff. Who else is gonna make sure some devious trickster doesn't gobble you up?" He smirked at her before shaking his head. "Ahh, tasty bunny." He wiggled the fingers of one paw at her as he turned away. "See you at the station Monday, Carrots."

"Bye Nick!" She waved, watching him head off for a minute or two. She didn't quite notice the way her smile shrank into something smaller, gentler, as she did. Shaking her own head, she stepped inside and started the long climb to her apartment. Six flights of stairs wasn't necessarily fun, but it was good cardio and she always viewed the elevator with a suspicious eye. After hearing the noises it had made during her first, and thus far only trip in it, she was loathe to trust the rusted thing.

The smell of charred wood greeted her nose when she opened the door to her floor. She rolled her eyes, making her way along to her apartment. Another failed cooking experiment, probably. Weird smells were a curious and sometimes disturbing reality of her living quarters, much like the shouting and argument from next door—such as right now. She fumbled with her keys for a moment, the smell curiously stronger. Still, ninety nine times out of a hundred, it was nothing to worry about.

The lock clicked open, and the scent went from "strong" to "assaulting her nostrils". At the same time, a distinct undercurrent of burned fur joined the party. She stepped into her apartment—or, rather, what had once been her apartment—and her jaw fell open.

Normally, it was a tiny, cramped little space with a bed on one side, a desk on the other, and roughly enough room between to wiggle to the window. Now? The left wall had a hole in it Nick could've walked through without any issues, her bed was on its side and faintly smoldering, her microwave was in pieces covering the place, and the uniform that she'd draped over the back of her desk chair had been charred in a half dozen places.

"…Oh, cheese and crackers."

* * *

Nick was just a few blocks away when his phone rang. The former con-mammal glanced at the screen, eyebrow quirking up as he saw who was on the other end. "Whats the little fuzz butt need so soon?" He muttered before thumbing the "Answer" button.

" 'Sup, cottontail. Miss me already?" He said with a chuckle. He was a bit taken aback by her response—or, rather, the quiet tone.

"Hey, Nick. Uh…you know any good hotels nearby?" She sounded somewhere between annoyed and almost frustrated, and he could hear yelling in the background.

"Huh? Uh. Yeah, I know a couple. Why, whats up?" He slowed to a stop as he spoke, glancing back the way he'd come.

"…My apartment…kind of blew up. "

He…had not been expecting that. He turned and started walking back, which quickly turned to jogging. "What?! Are you ok? What in the nine hells happened?" Blew up?!

"I'm fine, it looks like it happened while we were at the concert. Don't know exactly what happened, other than both my and my neighbors microwave exploding. That's all I can get out of them right now. " Her voice definitely edged towards annoyance near the end there. "They're waiting on the paramedics right now. I called them first, since," and her he could tell she was yelling at someone else, "Neither of my neighbors was smart enough to call when it first happened!"

Her breathing returned to normal a moment later, just as her building came back into view. He slowed in front of it, panting slightly—he'd been running faster than he thought. "That…uh. Wow, that sucks, Flopsy." He paused at the front door, the mind of this self admittedly wildly intelligent, gorgeously handsome, sly and cunning fox working at a mile a minute for a second or two. "But…yeah, I know a place you can lay your head for a few nights. " He stepped inside and paused again. "Though if you want help with your luggage, you'll have to tell me what floor you live on."

* * *

"You didn't have to help! It's just a pair of suitcases!" Judy protested weakly. He promptly ignored her, as he had the five previous times, and continued carrying her suitcases in one shoulder.

"Nick!" He leaned over as she hopped up again (third time), and tried to snatch one of the suitcases from him. "Oh, prickleberry! You dumb fox!" She tried to kick him in the shin, and he casually swung that leg out so she missed, overbalanced, and fell on her cute tush. She glared up at his innocent grin. "You're just doing this to guilt me out of donut money." She grumbled.

"You know it, cottontail." He said easily, continuing down the sidewalk.

She scrambled to her feet and races after him, hopping around to walk backwards in front of the fox. "Where are you taking me anyway?"

He glanced up past her. "Hmm? Too late for a cab, so we're hitting the subway. "

She blinked at him. "Subway? Why?" She asked, a touch incredulous. "You don't know any hotels closer?"

He smirked. "What, you think I'm gonna have you sleeping in some flea-bitten excuse for a B&B? Nah, I know a good place, real cheap."

She rolled her eyes, but nodded. "Fine, I bow to your superior judgement.

A quick trip on the subway and another twenty minutes of walking had her doubting that judgement. They were approaching the bridge she'd found him and apologized to him at—trying not to think about bursting into tears—and she was growing increasingly confused.

"…Nick, what are you doing? Do you seriously expect me to sleep under a bridge?" She finally asked, perhaps a bit louder than she intended.

He grinned that smug little grin at her again as they neared the stone structure. "Why not? I do!"

She stopped in shock, a whirlwind of emotions tearing through her at that revelation—before he produced a key and unlocked a door in the side of the bridge, stepping in. Somewhat numb, she followed, and found further shock.

A seemingly short stairway down, a bit of a hall—and then a simply massive living room greeted her eyes. It was easily bigger than ever the one from back home, and that had to contain a boat-load of kits!

"Nick…!" She breathed, looking around. Nice looking furniture, if some a bit beat up, a flatscreen tv on the wall, and at least two other hallways leading out to further unexplored areas.

"What? Didn't you know foxes made their dens underground?" he said cheekily, finally setting her luggage down next to an obscenely comfortable looking couch.

She looked around again and stared at him, mouth open for a moment as she waved her paws. She even managed a sentence! "How?!" Well, a short sentence.

He rolled his eyes, propping his footpads up on a coffee table. "What, you thought I spent all my hard conned money on popsicle sticks?" He snickered. "I picked this place up for a song and a dance a couple of years back. Some crazy rich badger built a park, and wanted to live under it. At least until he got bored and built another park. Sold it to me as is, furniture and all, long as I promised never to sell the land to real-estate agents."

Judy looked around, mouth wide open, before returning her gaze to him. "…You own a public park?!"

"Technically it's private property. I just don't prosecute most trespassers." He grinned at her.

Abruptly, Judy's mouth snapped shut with a click that likely echoed the one in her brain. "Wait, I thought you were taking me somewhere I could—Nick, are you inviting me to move in with you?"

This seemed to turn the sly fox a touch bashful for some reason. He chuckled nervously and shrugged. "Well, I have plenty of room, and it'd save you a bundle on hotel fees." He shook his head, raising a hand to forestall her objections. "Before you start: Not taking advantage, I'm offering this of my own free will to my friend, no you won't be paying rent, yes you'll help with utilities, you can stay until your apartment is fixed and then head back to it if you want, you kill the spiders and take the trash out." He paused, twitching his fingers as he counted off all of the things he thought Judy would bring up. "Oh! And we'd have to share bathrooms until I can turn the water back on in one of the others."

He looked her over as her mouth worked, the bunny trying to come up with a reason why this was a bad idea. "Face it Carrots, this is your best option." He said with a chuckle.

After a moment more furious though, Judy's ears relaxed and she sighed before climbing up onto the couch beside him. "…You're so just doing this for the free donuts." She groused.

He couldn't help it—he snickered and nudged her shoulder with his fist. "Grumpy bunny. "

She looked at him, before smiling. "Dumb fox…"


End file.
